Tales of Western Romance (8 page)

“
Hey, it’s not my hand under your
shirt.”

“
Oh!” She jerked her hand away, her
cheeks burning with embarrassment.

His fingertips caressed her lower lip.
“Sweet,” he murmured.”

She stared at him, mesmerized by the desire
in his eyes, the sensual touch of his fingers moving back and forth
over her lips.

Her heart did a flip flop of anticipation as
he leaned toward her. She could have pulled away. She could have
slapped him. Instead, she closed her eyes and reveled in his
kisses. Her common sense told her she was headed for trouble, but
she wasn’t listening.

The old Bonnie would have listened, but this
impulsive new Bonnie decided to throw caution to the winds. She
wrapped her arms around him, drawing him closer, delighting in the
hard length of his body moving against hers. In the back of her
mind, she realized that her previous boyfriends were amateurs in
the kissing department compared to Gray. And like a splash of cold
water came the disquieting thought that he must have had a lot of
practice, and that she was probably just another in a long line of
floozies.

Putting her hands on his chest, she pushed
him away.

Gray frowned at her, confused by her sudden
change of mood. “What’s wrong?”

“
Nothing. I just came to my
senses.”

He shook his head. “You picked a hell of a
time for it.”

“
I don’t care to be another
conquest.”

“
Conquest?”

“
Another notch on your
bedpost.”

Sitting up, Gray ran a hand over his jaw.
“Lady, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“
Your kisses.”

“
You’re complaining?”

“
No.”

Gray blew out an exasperated sigh. “One of us
isn’t making any sense,” he muttered. “And it isn’t me.”

“
You kiss like you’ve had a lot of
practice. A lot of women.”

“
I’m thirty years old. I’ve been with a
few women in my time. Not as many as you seem to think.”

“
How many?”

“
Only two. One when I was very
young.”

“
And the other?”

“
I met her in Colorado a few years
back. Her father was the sheriff. I might have married her, but
when she found out I was a half-breed, she wouldn’t see me
anymore.”

“
Did you love her very
much?”

He shrugged. “I thought I did. How about
you?” he asked, turning the tables on her. “Have you known a lot of
men?”

“
No. And none of them were like
you.”

“
You mean they weren’t
Indians?”

“
No, I mean they were…soft.”

He frowned at her. “Soft?”

“
They were, you know,
wimps.”

He lifted one brow. “Wimps?”

She searched her mind for a word that meant
something similar in the eighteen hundres but couldn’t think of
any. “They were weak, and not just physically. Do you know what I
mean?”

“
I think so.”

There was nothing weak about Gray, she
thought. His body was strong and well-muscled. He knew how to
survive in the wilderness. Of course, she couldn’t really fault
Wade, Will, or Luke for not having any outdoor survival skills
since they were all city-born and worked in offices. Still, she
knew instinctively that Gray could protect her. It was, she
discovered, quite a turn-on, knowing he could take care of her.

When he kissed her again, she closed her
eyes. And for the first time in her life, she made love with no
guilt and no regret.

Chapter 7

In the morning, she woke expecting to be
filled with a sense of guilt, but there wasn’t any.

Gray smiled at her and she smiled back,
happier, at that moment, than she had ever been in her life.

“
Mornin’,” he drawled.

“
Morning.”

“
We need to get goin’,” Gray
said.

“
Can we get something to eat first? I’m
starving.”

“
Sure. We’ll go over to the Grand and
then we’ll head out.”

Bonnie nodded. In spite of what they had
shared the night before, her cheeks grew warm when Gray rolled out
of bed, completely unabashed at being naked in front of her.

“
You gonna lay about all day?” he
asked, reaching for his trousers.

“
No.” Gathering her courage, she threw
back the covers, slid her legs over the edge of the bed, and
grabbed her shirt. Her cheeks grew hotter under Gray’s appreciative
gaze.

She had never been intimate with Wade or
Will, and had only made love to Luke twice, in the dark. Neither
experience had been satisfying. Certainly nothing like last night.
But Wade and Will and Luke had been boys. And Gray was all man.
Just looking at him turned her bones to liquid.

“
If you keep looking at me like that,
we’ll never get out of here,” he said with a wicked
grin.

“
Sorry,” she murmured, but she couldn’t
stop looking.

“
I reckon we can wait awhile,” he said,
and dropped his trousers on the floor.

* * * * *

Bonnie blew out a sigh as they left the hotel
dining room. The prices in the past were amazing. Imagine, paying a
dollar for a breakfast of hot cakes, bacon and beans.

She shook her head as she followed Gray down
the street. Miners and wagons stirred the dust in the road,
prostitutes paraded shamelessly in front of the cribs, boldly
advertising their wares. She overheard some of the men talking
about Madam Dirty Em and Madam Mustachio. When she looked at Gray
for an explanation, he shrugged and said, “Whores.”

“
Oh.”

Gray shrugged. “The population here is mostly
men. I heard the miners lined the streets and cheered when the
madams arrived back in ‘76.”

Wide-eyed, Bonnie trailed after Gray as he
bought supplies and blankets, then headed for the livery barn where
he bought a used saddle and bridle.

Bonnie smiled at the livery owner as he led
the horses out of the stable, felt a shiver run down her spine when
her gaze met that of a tall, reed-thin man wearing a black frock
coat and a stovepipe hat. The stranger seemed overly interested in
watching Gray saddle their horses. Or maybe the man was just
admiring the stallion, she thought. Either way, he made her
uncomfortable.

A short time later, the supplies were stowed
in the saddlebags and Gray was lifting her onto the back of the
stallion. The colt frolicked at the mare’s heels as they rode out
of town.

For her part, Bonnie was glad to see the last
of Deadwood.

Gray seemed lost in thought as they rode
along. She didn’t know what he was thinking about, but she found
herself thinking about home and wondering how she would ever find
her way back. Not that she was anxious to go back, not when it
meant leaving Gray. She felt comfortable with him, though she
wasn’t sure why. Maybe, because she could be herself with him. She
didn’t have to worry about impressing him, or pretending to be
something she wasn’t.

“
Where are we going now?” she asked
after a while.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“
What’s the matter?”

“
There was a man back at the livery. I
can’t be sure, but I think he recognized me.”

“
The tall, skinny man in the frock
coat?”

“
That’s him.”

“
He looked like an
undertaker.”

“
Close. I think he’s a bounty
hunter.”

“
Oh. That’s not good, is it?” She tried
to recall what little she knew about bounty hunting, but the only
thing that came to mind was an old Steve McQueen movie where he
went out looking for people who had skipped bail.

Gray reined his horse to a halt. Reaching
into his back pocket, he pulled out a sheet of paper, and handed it
to her.

Relámpago
stopped beside the bay.

“
What’s this?” Bonnie asked.

“
A reward poster. It was tacked to the
door of the livery.”

Bonnie unfolded the paper and found herself
staring at a rough sketch of Gray’s face. It wasn’t particularly
good, but there was no mistaking who it was. “Wanted for murder.
Jackson Gray Hawk. Five hundred dollar reward,” she murmured. “Dead
or alive.”

He nodded, his expression bleak, as she
returned the poster. And then he clucked to the bay.

Relámpago
followed Gray without any
urging on Bonnie’s part. Lost in thought, she paid little attention
to where they were going. The words ‘dead or alive’ kept repeating
themselves in her mind. But it was the look in the cold brown eyes
of the man in the frock coat that worried her most.

They rode all that day. Bonnie didn’t
complain. The more miles they put between themselves and the bounty
hunter, the better.

It was full dark when Gray decided to make
camp. “No fire tonight,” he said, unsaddling their horses.

She nodded.

They ate jerky and cold beans for dinner and
washed it down with water.

Later, lying on her back beside Gray, Bonnie
gazed up at the sky. Millions of stars glittered overhead. She
could see the silhouettes of the horses grazing in the distance.
She sighed when Gray drew her closer.

“
We have to get away from here,” she
said. “Far away.” She traced his cheek with her fingertips. “We
have to figure out a way to get Relámpago to take us back to my
time,” she said, nodding. “You’ll be safe there.”

“
There’s just one thing – I’ve never
heard of anyone telling that stallion what to do or where to
go.”

“
Well, there’s a first time for
everything,” Bonnie said.

“
What do you see me doing in your
time?” he asked curiously.

“
I don’t know. I haven’t thought about
it. What kind of work do you do here?”

“
Work.” He chuckled. “Honey, no one’s
gonna hire a half-breed for any kind of decent job. Oh, I could
empty spittoons in one of the saloons, or sweep the livery and muck
the stalls.”

“
That’s terrible. So, how did you earn
a living?” She asked the question, not certain she wanted to hear
his answer.

“
Playing poker.”

“
Oh, so you’re a gambler. They have
gamblers in my time.” Lots of them, she thought. They played in
Vegas and Tahoe, there were tournaments on one of the cable
channels. Of course, she didn’t know if the kind of poker they
played in her time was the same as what they played in the Old
West, but how different could it be? “So, what do you
say?”

Gray shrugged. “We can try tomorrow, if it’ll
make you happy,” he said, slipping his arm around her shoulders.
“But for now, I’ve got other things on my mind.”

“
Oh, you do, do you?”

“
You got any objections?”

His hand slid up and down her back, sending
shivers of anticipation along her spine. “What do you think?” It
was crazy, she thought, crazy that she had fallen for Gray so hard,
so fast. They had nothing in common, and yet she felt as if she had
come home, as if she had been looking for him all her life without
knowing it.

Gray gazed deep into her eyes, warming her
through and through. “I’m glad you got lost,” he said, brushing a
kiss across her jaw. “Glad that
Relámpago
found you and
brought you here.”

“
Me, too,” she murmured as Gray drew
her closer. “Me, too.”

He undressed her slowly, each kiss and caress
evoked sensations she had never known before. She lost herself in
the touch of his lips, the stroke of his hands, the husky timbre of
his voice as he whispered love words in her ear.

Never had she felt so loved, so cherished.
She watched through heavy-lidded eyes as he quickly shed his own
clothes, then lowered his body over hers. She gazed up at him,
thinking she had never seen anything more beautiful than Gray
silhouetted against a blanket of stars.

She whispered his name as his body melded
with hers. Whatever the future held, she knew she would forever
remember this man, and this moment.

* * * * *

Bonnie woke with a start, wondering what had
roused her from sleep, and found the answer on the other end of the
rifle pointed at Gray’s head.

The bounty hunter had found them.

The man in the frock coat tossed a pair of
handcuffs at Gray. “Put those on, real slow.”

A muscle ticked in Gray’s jaw as he picked up
the cuffs and locked them in place.

“
Get up, real easy,” the hunter said.
“I’ve saddled your horses. Mount up.”

Bonnie did as she was told, ever aware of the
long rifle in the bounty hunter’s hands. She knew, as sure as she
knew her own name, that he would kill her and Gray without turning
a hair. His next words confirmed her worst fears.

“
The flyer says dead or alive. Dead’s
easier.”

Gray nodded curtly. He glanced briefly at
Bonnie, then grabbed the saddle horn in his cuffed hands and swung
up onto the bay’s back.

Bonnie took up Relámpago’s reins and pulled
herself into the saddle.

The bounty hunter threw a loop over the bay’s
neck and secured it to the pommel of his saddle. After sliding the
rifle into the saddle boot, he mounted his horse and moved out,
heading west.

Bonnie and the stallion trailed behind. She
had the distinct feeling that the bounty hunter didn’t care if she
followed or not.